Fixed asset tagging is the procedure, not the sticker: the decision about what gets a tag, the number issued from the register, the barcode printed on it, the place it is fixed, the first count that proves every tag scans to a line, and the exceptions that are recorded as untaggable. Done once, properly, it turns the annual count from a search into a walk with a scanner. Done as an afternoon with a label printer and no register, it produces tags that point at nothing. This page sets out the procedure for the person tagging the assets of a company, a school, a church or a laboratory for the first time, with what the register has to hold at each step.
Step one: decide what is tagged, and record what is not
Everything on the register that can carry a tag gets one: devices, furniture, machines, instruments, tools above the threshold. Some assets cannot: software seats, leasehold improvements, vehicles with registration plates, assets inside other assets. The register marks those as untaggable with the reason, so the count knows not to look for a tag and the auditor knows why there is none. The decision is made per class, once, and applied to every new line.
Step two: issue the number from the register, then print the barcode of it
The tag's number is issued by the register when the line is opened, in sequence, never reused. The barcode or QR code on the tag encodes that number and nothing else. Printing tags first and typing the numbers into the register afterwards is the common mistake, and it is how two assets end up with one number. Print from the register's own list of unlabelled lines, so a printed tag is a line that exists.
Step three: fix the tag in the class's standard place and scan it once
Each class has one placement: the same corner of every laptop lid, the underside edge of every desk, the control panel of every machine. The tag is fixed, scanned, and the scan is recorded against the line with the date and the person, which is the first count. A tag that was printed and never scanned is a tag the register does not know is on the asset, and the first count is what closes that gap.
Step four: the count, and what the register learns from it
After tagging, a count is a walk with a scanner: every scan is a line found, and the register lists the lines with no scan. Organisations holding equipment bought with federal funds must take that physical inventory and reconcile it to the property records at least once every two years under 2 CFR 200.313; a small company with no grants does the same once a year because it is how the register stays true. The lines not found are the register's real work: a transfer nobody recorded, a disposal nobody recorded, or a loss.
Questions people ask about fixed asset tagging
What is asset tagging in one sentence?
Fixing a durable label carrying the register's asset number and a barcode of it to every asset that can carry one, and recording the first scan against the register line so that every count afterwards is a scan rather than a search.
What is an asset barcode?
The register's asset number encoded as a barcode or QR code on the tag, so a scanner reads the number directly. It is the same number as the printed one; the barcode is for the scanner, the printed digits are for a person.
How long does fixed asset tagging take for a small organisation?
With the register already filled in, a few hundred assets is a day or two for one person with a printer and a scanner. Without the register, it is the register that takes the time, and the tagging should wait for it.
Should software and licences be tagged?
No. They are on the register as seats with a product, a count and a renewal date, marked untaggable. The tag is for things that can be counted by walking past them.